Tuesday December 12, 2023

“In faith, we don’t need to see what the light is going to reveal; we only need to be in the light.”

Good News Reflection for:

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12, 2023

Today’s Prayer:

Jesus, thank You for Your mother! She shows me how my Father’s love surrounds me and takes care of me every minute of my life. Thank you, Mother, for leading me to Jesus! Amen.

Subscribe to Today’s Saint Quote & Prayer:
gnm.org/SaintQuotes/

Today’s Readings:

Zechariah 2:14-17 or Revelations 11:19a; 12:1-6a,10ab
Judith 13:18-19 (with 15:9d)
Luke 1:26-38 or Luke 1:39-47
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121223.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-december-12-2023

Saying yes to God

In our Gospel reading today, we’re shown how the light of Christ affected the Virgin Mary even before the birth of Christ. Jesus is the Light of the world, an uncreated, always existing divine light of God, the Savior of all humankind since the first moment that humans needed saving, millennia before Mary became the mother of God.

Even though Jesus had not yet come into the world in the flesh of the Son, his holy light totally bathed Mary in its pure glow. And even though she could not understand how the long-awaited Messiah could be conceived within her virgin body, in his light she could see that God was the one who was asking.

That’s all she needed to know: God asked for it, and God always knows what he’s doing, and what he’s doing is always good, so of course the answer is yes. Of course she wanted to cooperate with his plan. Of course she uttered her famous fiat: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

That is all we need to know: What God asks for, he enables, and it’s always going to end up being good. If we understand this much, then of course we want to say, “May it be done to me according to your word.”

Pope John Paul the Great wrote in his Encyclical Letter “Redemptoris Mater” (Mother of the Redeemer), paragraph 13: “Mary uttered this fiat in faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve and ‘devoted herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son'” (quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium, para. 56).

In faith, we don’t need to see what the light is going to reveal; we only need to be in the light.

Our problem, however, is that whenever God asks us to do something, we usually try to look ahead to figure out where God is going to take us. We want to know how difficult it will be, will it be worth the time and effort, and how quickly will we meet with success. And in doing so, we only see darkness. The light is not shining on the future — it’s only shining on what God is revealing to us right now, right here, in this moment.

That’s all we need to know. Whatever God asks of us, we only need to see that it’s him who’s doing the asking, not our own imagination or someone else’s idea of how we should spend our time. First we discern who’s voice is calling (with the Holy Spirit’s help), and then we trust that God knows what he’s doing, where to go, and how to make it good.

See also the Good News WordByte for this Feast Day, “How to be a Handmaid of the Lord, Like Mary” @ https://wordbytes.org/evangelization-ministry/how-to-be-handmaid-of-the-lord/

2023 by Terry A. Modica

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